Friday, August 12, 2011

CNN-IBN: Divide The Nation Polls - Terrorism

CNN-IBN carried another instalment of its series of opinion polls on August 11. This one was on terrorism. In the first two instalments IBN’s partner in this hobby, The Hindu, put out the complete data through PDF files on their site. However, in the last two polls (Economy and Terrorism) I have not been able to download the data files. Try downloading the data files at The Hindu’s site here and here. I guess CNN-IBN and The Hindu expected people to be awed and go gaga over these polls instead of being analysed in-depth. So now, you only have clips from their TV show to go by which are scanty in details on the questions, the respondents and so on. One word for their tomfoolery – BUSTED!

Anyway, before I get to this latest instalment on Terror one has to understand the minds that work behind such surveys and polls. Much of it looks like a political position already taken by the heads of the organisations involved. Now read Rajdeep Sardesai’s anguished tweet over the right wing. I don’t know if I qualify as right-wing yet but here’s what Rajdeep tweeted:

“afzal on death row for 5 years, kasab for 3, but rajiv assassins on death row for 20 years. why no right wing anger? Gnight”

August 11, around 11.30 PM

That is probably one of the most boorish tweets to have come from Rajdeep. I also think Rajdeep was completely unaware how stupid his tweet and his thoughts are. Now, here is a media dealer who keeps shouting hoarse about a lot of things on his channel and yet it didn’t occur to him that he should be the one asking the Nalini question to the UPA. Having failed in that job miserably he thinks the right wing should be making those noises. So tell us Rajdeep have you, as a media dealer, ever asked that question to MMS, PC or Sonia Gandhi? Or have you asked that question on your channel? If not, make it a point immediately that your channel would want the same fate for Nalini as Guru. Having abrogated your responsibility don’t point fingers at some vague right-wing. You should be ashamed that you didn’t actively seek justice for both Nalini and Afzal Guru and then lament that people don’t care about others on the death row. Do you care?

In case Rajdeep forgot, it was Rajiv’s own family member, Priyanka Gandhi, who met Nalini to seek solace. In case Rajdeep forgot, the Indian right-wing didn't coin the term 'Global Jihad'. Rajdeep has found a place in many of my posts but I thought it would be a good point to remind him of what I think of Nalini. And here are excerpts from some of those posts:

What if Pakistan did hand over the remaining 49 wanted persons from that list of 50? What exactly would our government do? Afzal Guru and Nalini (Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin) are still comfortably lodged in jails.

Killers of Rajiv Gandhi are still in jail. Ajmal Kasab continues to dance around Indian courts every week. Now that, I suppose, is resolve for you……..It is the serious ineptness of the UPA in allowing killers like Afzal Guru or the killers of Rajiv Gandhi to defy justice that spurs anger among citizens

So let’s understand what the 3 stooges have said. The first stooge, PM talks about resolve. Resolve is usually shown by messages or by action. There is neither any message nor any action. Afzal Guru still continues to live in some jail. Killers of Rajiv Gandhi are still in jail.

There, Rajdeep, patriotic Indians are not biased like our media to distinguish justice for terrorists. In fact, the killing of our Prime Minister is as much a war against us as the attack on our parliament. And it is polls like the ones CNN-IBN is doing that attempts to divide the nation with dubious leading questions.

That bit done, let’s get back to CNN-IBN’s dubious surveys. Behind all the silly percentages, not backed by raw data, the only conclusion that Yogendra Yadav came to was “People say terror not linked to religion”. Frankly, that is a line any lame duck politician will give you free of charge. Why spend all the money on surveys unless it’s free funds? And really, one had to go and ask BJP and Congress workers about their perceptions on terror? That’s really cool. CNN-IBN gets guys from BJP and Congress almost every day on their show. Where’s the need for this exercise?

Historically, terrorism was born out of religion and intolerance. Now, if all the wise men and women at CNN-IBN, CSDS and The Hindu are those who have supposedly read history then they live in denial. Not so long ago there was terrorism by IRA and PIRA in Northern Ireland/UK. The objectives were political but the motive was religion. Surveys that don’t even ponder the political motives of terrorism are usually conducted by ‘useful idiots’. Islam is not just a religion but also a political doctrine. The conquest of territories, conversions, belief in supremacy over other religions are all part of the political and religious agenda. The only religious group to have any influence in the UN is the ‘Organisation of Islamic Countries’ (OIC) who collectively attempt to pass international laws on blasphemy and such religious beliefs. That our media consciously spreads untruths is now out in the open. Don’t claim it to be ‘journalism’ anymore when the only motive is money, money and more money. The best part is getting people like A. Owaisi of MIM to debate terrorism. How clever is that? Groups that are violent against writers like Taslima Nasreen. And terror has no religion?

Rajdeep’s anger at the right-wing is understandable. I think he finds them too intelligent and far too capable of expressing themselves truthfully against CNN-IBN and their close relatives at NDTV, HT and so on. His deputy editor is credited with coining the term ‘Internet Hindus’. Far from seeing it as an affront the right-wingers wear that tag proudly. Not something she would have anticipated. The politicians’ constant endeavour is to divide the nation in every possible way. They wouldn’t have succeeded but for the help of media crooks.

At the very best Yogendra Yadav’s article “People say terror has no religion” might win an essay contest in some primary school or maybe the UN. But if truth were the measure, it fails miserably. These are media-lessons on how to divide the nation.

9 comments
:

RavinarSpot on. An excellent post on entirely biased MSM media. These people cannot digest others' intelligence. That's the reason they squirm. They never come up with any perfect reasoning for their nonsense. They are still living in Utopian world. These people do not have any self-respect or integrity.Ram

The government, media ministers, are not for homeless but for topless. They will remain monuments once people understand their nefarious activities. But it is their art to have kept the nation with such backwardness to repeatedly vote for them

I think you should have at least tried to find about Yogendra Yadav's work before going with your point. He has not only done this poll. He has done many post-poll surveys and has almost always got the decision right, including the victory of BJP, Congress or any other political party in a state or general election in general. He has also looked at possible reasons for victory or defeat of parties in any election. He has credibility. And in this poll, he even did not go and define terrorism for people. He has gone through a scientific procedure to ask people. If you feel the procedure is flawed, then you should point out those flaws rather than making statements having no logic or proof behind them. What proof is there for your statement that most Indians believe that terrorism is linked with one religion (or probably all religions)? At least he has done a survey and among those he surveyed, he finds this not to be the case.The way to prove it's wrong is to conduct a bigger survey than him and prove him wrong, not saying general statements without any proof. I agree by the way with you that Rajdeep Sardesai is a joke anyways, he is only bothered about Congress and promoting them. But Yogendra is not that.

I wish to just say one more thing. The survey was not done by CNN-IBN. They don't have the interest to do that anyways. The survey was done by CSDS (Centre for Study of Developing Societies). The link to that is here. (http://www.lokniti.org/questionnairebank.htm#AES) So please, do not attribute motives like this without knowing the entire truth. Please go through all of his reports. The link to the State of the Nation Poll (including on terrorism) is here: http://www.lokniti.org/pdfs_dataunit/Questionairs/hardening-mood-on-terrorism-11th-august-the-hindu.pdf In case you are not able to get the file, I have managed to download it. You can mail me at rakesh.rnbdj@gmail.com and I can send it to you. And if you feel you have any questions, CSDS allows you to question them on the surveys at election@csds.in (I hope that answers all your issues).

Your observations, while healthy, are misplaced. I am quite aware who exactly does the surveys.. the point is which media house sponsors it. No media house does a direct survey on its own and everybody knows that.

Secondly, Yogendra Yadav's surveys have regularly been inaccurate, including ones on elections. Rest assured, I do compare other surveys too and track for consistency of results. There are other posts on this blog that discuss surveys specifically in great detail, the questions asked and way they are skewed. This particular post does not have surveys as a key topic, rather terror inspired by religion. Dont confuse that for a post on surveys.

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